If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Google Insights for Search

The attached image shows how "youtube" came out of nowhere and surpassed "google" in less than 18 months.

The numbers on the graph aren't "real", they are useful only to compare different search terms.

The tool lets you filter your search by geography, by time, or by search category.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the screen, you will see that the tool also show the top ten search term related to your keyword. It also shows the "rising" searches related to your keyword -- terms that you might want to optimize for before your competition does.

Thank you Will, that is a spectacular find. We've just checked the major keyphrases my g/f's site is using and found a bunch of rising keywords that are less competitive and that she's already ranking for, so she plans more pages with those terms.

I would not hope for "accuracy" of the level required to effectively judge even approximate numbers of monthly or yearly searches from any of these tools. That's like staring at the Orion nebula with a pair of cheap binoculars.